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ISP Extensions
Welcome to the Firefox ISP Extensions Page This page will carry the documentation for the ISP Extensions. The aim of this project is to allow native access to the content provided to other content providers content using the Firefox/Thunderbird suite. __TOC__ About This Project This project is being created with the intent of allowing users from previous ISP's to use the Firefox/Thunderbird applications to be able to access the same content that they had previously with their content provider. As the providers update their content then these extensions will allow us either to index dynamically the way the provider updates the content OR will have to report back the content using a reporting module. The caveat to this is if the content provider changes their authentication information to a different method then the extension would need to be updated/uninstalled. Each different provider has a different means to authentication as well as providing content. For each provider please read their heading above. Getting Involved There are multiple ways that you can get involved in the project. Some of those ways. *'Code' - If you can code XUL excellent please visit our Blog and drop us a line. There is lots of code to clobber. *'Ideas' - If you have an idea as to how this should work or how to better streamline it please again give some recommendations. Resources *XUL Planet *XULBook.com *Creating Applications in Mozilla *XUL Reference Guide Theory The theory between the multiple content providers differ from provider to provider however they all remain the same general "gist" (request,authenticate,provide). By being able to provide these things dynamically using an Firefox extension this should allow for usage of the providers content outside of their proprietary software. AOL America Online uses a screenname authentication protocol for all their proprietary content(Keywords) as well as some "Third Party" content. The two major differences are: # Proprietary - Forms that are developed using a Rainman rendering engine. This engine allows for AOL to hardcode their forms as well as other content in a manner feasible for speed. If you had to think about it this format it would be Form>Fields>Text>Graphics. This is slowly going away as we can see by their mail system. While it has always been HTML formated it is now being written in Javascript. Also AOL's newest Betas such as their AOL Media Player and AOL Browser are written in Javascript allowing for customization. # "Third Party" - AOL's Third Party content that they use for Keyword Structuring is a redirect service. No more, No less. For example if a member wanted to buy a new Chevy Truck and knowing that AOL probably has a Keyword Chevy it would redirect them to http://www.chevrolet.com/ much as how Firefox's "google" term feature works. Other Other content providers base a lot of their services off of an HTTP protocol. For example gmail's search engine, mail service, news services, and the like. MSN, Yahoo, Earthlink the same. The part where this plays into place is perhaps having the same "Keyword" structuring with these services. Say prehaps if you had the URL functionallity of AOL blended with the content of MSN. MSN KEYWORD so that prehaps MSN Search would take you to http://search.msn.com/ and I think the General Idea would be able to work using any provider Yahoo Mail being http://mail.yahoo.com/. The possibilities are endless. Category:SFX Projects Category:Extensions